Started in 2004 by Daniel Weinand, Tobias Lütke, and Scott Lake, Shopify soon became an e-commerce giant in the market. The company started as a digital snow shop but later on turned into an online service provider for e-commerce businesses.
Two plans of this e-commerce platform Shopify lite vs basic heavily dominate the market. These two plans have helped multiple online stores to reach six-figure revenue. Not only newcomers but the old professional merchants also get confused between the two.
What is the basic difference between and what it offers?
All your questions will be answered in this article and you will get to know the pros and cons of both the monthly plans. This will help you form a better opinion and select the best for your business
Shopify lite: Overview
It is the cheapest plan offered on the e-commerce store. This plan is designed to be affordable for everyone who wishes to launch their own e-commerce Store.
This monthly plan is available at $9/month which costs even less than a movie ticket. It provides all the basic features and functionalities that are necessary for an e-commerce Store.
Using this plan you can sell your product on an existing blog website through a buy button or you can sell it on social media apps like Facebook Messenger. You can also sell your product in person with a point-of-sale app.
The lite plan has a comprehensive design and features to easily manage business and inventory. Creating discount coupons and consulting sales analytics is also very easy. But you should remember that it is not a website builder so for that you can contact a freelance Web developer.
Pros and cons
- It is an ideal place to start a new business especially a business when you want to sell your products through Facebook. The setup process is very simple and cheap.
- It is also effective for an existing website or blog, it can convert them into sale pages by simply adding a shopping cart.
- Selling products is very convenient with Shopify lite plan features and you can even sell your product through Messenger without getting them to redirect to your main website. It allows quick sale and conversion and help earn a better revenue through this medium.
- This plan mainly focuses on turning the visitors into paying customers.
- Unlike other online eCommerce stores like Wix, Woocommerce, Shopify lite doesn’t focus on building beautiful websites and attractive stores, the only goal of this platform is selling products.
- The features are quite limited for a big store and no website or store creator is a provider here. You need to attach this plan to an existing website or blog.
Shopify basic: Overview
This plan is heavily popular due to its high converting preparation in the market. But it is very expensive compared to Shopify light. It charges $29 per month.
Although the charges are pretty high Shopify Basic plan features are more extensive and provide better control over the e-Commerce Store. It is great for those who already own a business and want to get started with Shopify.
Tons of free themes are included in it and you can customize them as per your preference and liking to match your brand. You can even track inventory from multiple locations like office, brick, warehouse, and mortar stores.
Pros and cons
- Online store builder is provided in this plan. With the help of a little expertise from a freelance Shopify developer, you can create your blog e-commerce site and as many pages as you need.
- There is no products limit, you can sell unlimited products here and it provides 24/7 support.
- 2 staff accounts and a sales channel are also provided. Free hosting and an SSL certificate are also included in this plan.
- More than a dozen apps can be added easily to this application.
- This plan has numerous additional fees which are not covered in the Shopify payments and more than 90% of the app cost extra.
- If you want to use extra themes instead of free themes you need to pay more.
- For editing HTML and CSS you need the help of a freelance Web developer because it is possible only with coding.
Final comparison: Shopify lite vs basic
Shopify notoriously charges an additional fee on its every plan but it is very transparent about these fees. There are few other additional charges that you should expect while taking any of these plans.
Both the platforms are good and You can get free trials for both of them. But the lite is for the beginning stage and if you want to achieve a 6 figure income through your store then you need to invest money and upgrade the plan. You can upgrade the plans anytime you want.